The Iris Murdoch Review Published by the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, University of Chichester in association with Kingston University Press Kingston University London, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2EE http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/kup/ © The Contributors, 2018 Printed by Lightning Source Cover design and typesetting by Penny Legg A record of this journal is available from the British Library. The Iris Murdoch Society President Anne Rowe, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE. Secretary Miles Leeson, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE. Administrator Heather Robbins, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE. Email: [email protected] The Iris Murdoch Review The Iris Murdoch Review (Kingston University Press) publishes articles on the life and work of Iris Murdoch and her milieu. The Review aims to represent the breadth and eclecticism of contemporary critical ap- proaches to Murdoch, and particularly welcomes new perspectives and lines of inquiry. The views and opinions expressed in the Iris Murdoch Review are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editors, production team, or Kingston University Press. Lead Editor Miles Leeson, Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE. Email: [email protected] Editors Frances White, Email: [email protected] Pamela Osborn, Email: [email protected] Editorial Assistant Lucy Oulton, University of Chichester Editorial Board Maria Antonaccio, Bucknell University, USA Lucy Bolton, Queen Mary, University of London Cheryl Bove, Metropolitan State University of Denver (Colorado), USA Avril Horner, Kingston University Bran Nicol, Surrey University Priscilla Martin, St Edmund Hall, Oxford Advisor Anne Rowe (Visiting Professor, University of Chichester) Review Production for this Edition Penny Legg, Kingston University Contents • Miles Leeson: Editorial Preface 2 Essays • Dávid Szóke: Letters from Iris Murdoch to Miklós Vető: thirty years of friendship 4 • Gary Browning: Iris Murdoch: History Woman 17 • Nora Hämäläinen: Iris Murdoch and the Descriptive Aspect of Moral Philosophy 23 • James Antony Riley: Lacan, Jouissance, and the Sublimation of Self in Iris Murdoch’s 31 The Black Prince • Clare MacCumhail and Rachael Wiseman: Anscombe, Foot, Midgley, Murdoch: A 39 Philosophical School • James Jeffries: An Introduction to The Iris Murdoch Information Service 50 Book Reviews • Pamela Osborn: Review of Iris Murdoch and the Common Reader by Liz Dexter 60 • Daniel Read: Review of Incest in Contemporary Literature, ed. by Miles Leeson 62 Reports • Gillian Dooley: Eighth International Iris Murdoch Conference: Gender and Trauma 65 • Lauren Bond: ‘Iris Murdoch’s Philosophical Journey’ Burnham-on-Sea Philosophy 69 Society, 13 September 2017 • Alice Pember: In Conversation: Iris Murdoch and Visual Culture at the National 71 Portrait Gallery, 12 October 2017 • Margaret Guise: ‘Cocoa After Wine’: Theological and Spiritual Perspectives in the 73 novels of Iris Murdoch. Sarum College, Salisbury, 2 November 2017 • Paula Scorrer: Iris Murdoch and ‘the Era’, Oxford in the ‘50s: An evening with 75 Professor Devaki Jain. University of Chichester, 10 November 2017 • Ellen Cheshire: ‘Iris Murdoch, Cinema and Film Philosophy’. University of 77 Chichester, 28 November 2017 • Lucy Bolton: Iris Murdoch: Novelist, Film Star, Philosopher . 3 February 2018 79 • Shauna Pitt: The Shaman and the Intertext. University of Chichester, 3 February, 2018 81 • Gillian Dooley: Metaphysics as a Guide to Machines – a seminar by Manny Rayner, 82 Flinders University, 21 March 2018 • Donna Carpenter: ‘Through the Lens of Janet Stone’ A book launch and talk by 85 Ian Beck 22 March, 2018 • Mark Hopwood: Report on a Conference on ‘Moral Perception in Iris Murdoch’ , 86 The Queen’s College, Oxford, 28 April 2018 • Lucy Bolton: A visit to the Iris Murdoch archive at McMaster University, 88 Hamilton, Canada • Katie Giles: Update from the Archives 2018 90 • Pamela Osborn: ‘Child of the Future’: A survey of recent and future publications 93 • Notes on Contributors 94 Editorial Preface This year’sReview has a strong focus on both philosophy and history and I am delighted that we have material drawn from a variety of different disciplines. The range of the major essays highlights the work being undertaken across the spectrum of academia, and indeed beyond, by major figures in intellectual history, moral philosophy, English literature, and interdisciplinary work. Essay contribu- tors range from renowned Murdochians through to early career academics and each essay highlights a shift in how we perceive her writing, and intellectual legacy. I am especially pleased that as we draw on new thinking in these areas we look back to her own writing, highlighted this year by a selection of letters to her final doctoral student, Miklós Vetö, introduced by a former student of Miklós (and Murdochian), Dávid Szőke. Miklós’ early life as a refugee from Hungary, from where he had to flee after being an active participant in the anti-communist revolution of 1956 to various camps in Yugoslavia, was always going to be of interest to Murdoch. In the letters chosen here they discuss philosophy, his life and work, and The Unicorn - ‘it is full of Simone Weil tho’ few (apparently) are those who can spot the greater source of my “wisdom”’: the full letter run can be viewed at Kingston. In last year’s review Justin Broackes highlighted Murdoch’s earlier engagement with Weil. We can now see that Miklós’ doctoral work on Weil, supervised by Murdoch, continued her major interest. We look forward to Miklós joining us as a plenary speaker at the centenary conference next year to discuss his professional relationship with her. I am also delighted to publish Gary Browning’s, and James Jefferies’, developed plenary papers from last year’s conference at Chichester. Gary’s work is in some respects an overture to both his monograph Why Iris Murdoch Matters, and edited collection, Murdoch on Truth and Love: both are published this month. He draws our attention to Murdoch as being immersed in history, and how her philosophical thought reflects the age in which she lived. James’ work as a creative technologist, coupled with his love of Murdoch’s fiction, inspired ‘The Iris Murdoch Information Service’ which he talks through here. This free online resource will be vital to all working in this area and the Murdoch community owes James a debt of gratitude for developing this in his spare time. Another major project, InParenthesis, is being led by Rachael Wiseman and Claire MacCumhaill. Their work brings together Murdoch, along with Elizabeth Anscombe, Phillipa Foot, and Mary Midgley to discuss the intersections in their philosophy, and asks if they can be considered a philo- sophical school. The two central aims of the project are to highlight the work of these women, and make women’s philosophy more prevalent today; we are delighted that the British Council funded this essay. It is timely that we have new work from Nora Hämäläinen discussing why we need to see Murdoch not as an interesting liminal figure in late twentieth century ethics (as she has sometimes been) but as a precursor to those now working in descriptive ethics considering concrete realities. James Riley’s new work, inspired by his postgraduate research at Chichester, discusses The Black Prince via the work of Lacan – a theorist whose work Murdoch knew at least partially. His essay dis- cusses how we can read Murdoch’s fictional use of low and high Eros via a Lacanian lens to, as Riley 2 contends, traverse the pleasure/pain barrier in the novel. The highlight of this year has undoubtedly been the Eighth International Conference held here, in Chichester. With over 90 attendees from 16 different countries our small campus was certainly ‘Murdochland’ for a weekend and Gillian Dooley’s review brings back many happy memories for those of us who were there. As she says, it is only a partial review as so many parallel sessions had to be sadly missed but I am sure that many papers will be developed into forthcoming publications. There were so many excellent events that have occurred over the past year that not all of them are reviewed in this edition but I am pleased that so many were hosted by the Research Centre, with support from the Society. My thanks go to all those who assisted with the organisation of these events, but especially to Donna Carpenter, Shauna Pitt, and Paula Scorrer – all of whom have writ- ten reviews. It has been heartening to host major international figures including Devaki Jain from the University of New Delhi who discussed her student life with Murdoch, and the Illustrator and artist Ian Beck whose illustrated talk on Janet Stone’s photography drew a very large crowd. It was also a pleasure to be at Queen’s College, Oxford earlier in the year for another symposium organised by the philosophy department, dedicated to Murdoch’s work. As Mark Hopwood highlights in his review she is now a part of mainstream thinking at Oxford. My thanks also to Pamela Osborn and Lucy Oulton for their diligence and dedication to the production of this Review. As always, Pamela brings together a round-up of academic works of interest. I must also thank Katie Giles for all her work. After nine years Katie has now left Kingston University and her final report is as comprehensive as ever; she has been a wonderful help and resource for so many enquiries and we shall miss her but hope that she can join us next year in Oxford. Dayna Miller has been appointed as the new archivist and will be looking after the Murdoch collections from now on. The planning for the centenary conference is now well advanced and the first Call for Papers was released on the 99th anniversary of Murdoch’s birth, just last month.